Page 114 of Ashborne: Defiance

For a second, bitterness rose in me—hot, unadulterated resentment at my dragon for having found his One and having no questions. Such utter devotion and loyalty that it outstripped his love for me—

Kham reared back with a sharp call, that lowered into a growl.

We stood at the bottom of the launch hollow, staring at each other.

Kham blew from his nostrils as if he’d been running, or flying at speed.

‘Voski, do you hear yourself?’

I looked at my feet, but I couldn’t deny the arguments rising in my head. ‘I know you love me, Kham. But you can’t deny that having a mate has divided your heart.’

He took the steps forward to be near me again, dropping his head and turning it to fix me with one, fathomless, compassionate eye.

I felt the wash of love from him and blew out a breath.

‘My loyalties are not divided,’ he sent emphatically. ‘You impose separation. If you would accept your mate, we four would be a force together—’

‘Stop!’

Kham’s head rose again, though more slowly this time. His eye rolling to remain fixed on me. But he didn’t comment, and that was chilling.

I swallowed hard. ‘I heard you. It’s not possible. Please, let it go.’

A low groan resonated in Kham’s chest, but he sighed, then sank down, folding his legs under him until his bulk lay on the dirt.

I stared at him, agape. ‘Are you refusing to fly me?’

‘Not at all,’ he said turning to nudge the mounting strap that fell over his shoulder, the end of which was pinned under his bulk. ‘But I know the weak often struggle to mount. I thought I would make it easier for you.’

“That isn’t funny.”

‘I found it quite amusing.’

I gave him a flat look, but I was too tired to care that he’d landed a blow. I clambered up onto his back, holding tightly to the straps when he lurched back to his feet and flapped his wings, preparing to launch.

My solitude—the treehouse Gil and I had built years earlier when we were still young and stupid, and sometimes wanted out of the barracks—would take an hour to walk to, but flying with a dragon was mere minutes.

Kham needed no direction. We’d been coming here for years. There was no path to the solitude. But we’d built it among the branches of a thick pine that was green year round. Unless someone walked directly underneath it and looked up, they’d never see it. To our knowledge, no one had ever discovered it.

Gil came out here less and less. But it was my sanctuary. The place we’d both fled at times during our careers as Furyknights—sometimes for fun, sometimes to grieve, sometimes just to be alone.

It was my second favorite place on earth, and the place in which I felt the safest.

Kham landed in a nearby clearing, then stood for me to unharness him.

After I’d rolled the harness up and placed it under the tree where it would be sheltered from any rain, I clapped my hands to dust them off, then turned to face him again.

‘Thank you.’

‘I love you, Voski. Even with a mate. You are my bonded one.’

‘I know,’ I sent back, waving him off. ‘Don’t worry about me. Go enjoy your mate and get some rest. I’ll see you in the morning.’

He huffed, then leaned down and blew his hot, damp breath over me, blowing my hair back off my face.

‘Rest well,’ he sent. Then he turned and rolled into a gallop, taking off a few paces later, before climbing into the sky and calling.

Letting his mate know he was on his return.